


A Taste of Honey

by lululawrence



Series: Honey Series [2]
Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Co-workers, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Honey, Humor, M/M, No Smut, Pining, it's just something silly really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 19:23:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19447960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lululawrence/pseuds/lululawrence
Summary: Louis opened the door expecting someone with Deliveroo. Instead his gaze lifted so he could look at a very frazzled, incredibly fluffy haired Greg James who was inexplicably holding out a very large jar of honey.“Hello, Gregory,” Louis said slowly.Shifting around, Greg stepped forward and held the honey out towards Louis again. “This is for you.”“Erm, alright,” Louis said before carefully taking the heavy jar from him. “Thank you?”Greg flashed a wide grin, nodded, and then without another word walked back out the front door of the building.Or the one where Louis has been pining after Greg ever since he started his job. Greg randomly showing up at his flat with a jar of honey might be just the push Louis needs to finally talk to the man.





	A Taste of Honey

**Author's Note:**

> Honey 2 is here! hehe So, every week I'm going to write a different fic using that week's Wordplay prompt. They'll be based off of a tweet that reads, "when i feel bad about my social skills i remind myself how one time rachmaninoff decided he was gonna be pals with stravinsky (who'd casually mentioned he liked honey) so he showed up at his house in the middle of the night with an enormous jar of honey and no explanation." I might continue the series later, but as of now it'll just be the five weeks for Wordplay with various pairings! hehe 
> 
> This is part of a Wordplay prompt challenge for the prompt "fluffy". To read the amazing fics that were written by the others on this prompt, [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/fluffy), and to see all fics written as part of the challenge (including years 1 and 2), [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/wordplay_fic_challenge/works). You can also find the masterpost for this year’s challenge [here](https://wordplayfics.tumblr.com/post/185709101043/wordplay-2019-every-week-for-five-weeks-a-prompt).
> 
> Thank you LOADS to those who cheer me on when I'm going all sorts of silly with my Grouis ideas hehe but even bigger thanks to [Nicola](https://missytearex.tumblr.com) and [Chelle](https://aslowmotionaccident.tumblr.com) for their help with betaing and brit picking! All remaining mistakes are my own.
> 
> The title comes from A Taste of Honey by the Beatles. This is a work of fiction, please don't share it with anyone associated with the band or Radio 1, I don't allow translations and reposting without express permission, etc etc etc. Thank you and I hope you enjoy!

Louis laughed at something Roisin said before turning back to finish his moussaka. He loved his team at work and how close they were. They went out for dinner together at least once a month, and while at first he wasn’t sure about it, he quickly realised that it was a lot of fun seeing the people he was with almost all day every day in a relaxed setting.

He just wasn’t such a fan when they included the rest of the department. 

It wasn’t that he disliked others in the department, it was the complete opposite actually. Their department was small, only made up of about fifteen people total, but Louis didn’t function well when Greg James was around.

Louis had first met Greg on his first day and he’d immediately been struck by him. He was so effortlessly cool while still being a ridiculously massive nerd. Louis didn’t know how he did it.

They also had no reason to interact at work. Despite being in the same department, their teams were incredibly specialised and Louis therefore never had a reason to actually work with Greg, much to his disappointment. That also left him with little reason to socialise with Greg outside of work, no matter how much he might’ve wanted to.

So. Here he was. Sitting at the same massive table as Greg, eating incredible Greek food, and all Louis could do was sneak hopefully undiscovered glances at the beautiful man telling awful jokes at the other end of the table.

“Oh God, we’ve got to get baklava,” Roisin said, flailing over the dessert menu the waiter had brought to the table a moment earlier. “I’ve been craving the pistachio one. Doesn’t that sound amazing?”

“That’s disgusting,” Chris muttered. “I hate honey. Can’t handle baklava.”

“How do you hate honey?” Louis asked, chuckling. “I definitely like it well enough to have a baklava. What do you have against the nectar of the bees?”

“Yeah, Chris, it’s the nectar of the bees!” Roisin cheered holding up her wine glass. She was so often a bit shy and quiet at work, but Louis loved it when they were able to get her to relax. She had a great sense of humour and was one of Louis’ favourite people to work with now that he’d gotten to know her better.

Louis only stopped teasing Chris when the waiter came back to take the dessert orders, and then Louis glanced over to see what Greg was up to, but his seat was empty. 

Oh well. Just another chance to possibly say something to him lost. Maybe someday Louis would be able to find a way to bridge the gap.

*~~***~~*

Someone was knocking at the door. Why was someone knocking at the door?

Louis picked up his phone and didn’t see any texts saying someone was stopping by. Who decided that 11:53 pm on a Friday was the time to randomly say hello?

“Haz,” Louis said, picking up a dirty napkin from the pizza he and Harry had gotten for their  _ Good Omens _ marathon and throwing it at his flatmate. “Harold, get the door.”

“Why?” Harry croaked. He’d fallen asleep in the recliner again. He had a horrible habit of doing that, which meant Louis would end up rewatching at least one of the four episodes they’d watched so far, but it was David Tennant, so he couldn’t complain too much. “It’s probably just someone’s takeaway being delivered to the wrong place or summat.”

The knocking picked up again, and Louis groaned when he realised Harry really wasn’t going to get the door. 

Rolling off the sofa onto his feet, Louis slowly headed to the door where their unexpected visitor was knocking, again. “Fine, ya knob. I’m going to say you owe an extra twenty quid next rent payment to make up for my inconvenience.”

“Sure, Lou,” Harry mumbled before turning onto his side and letting out a little snore.

Snorting in amusement, Louis opened the door expecting someone with Deliveroo. Instead his gaze lifted so he could look at a very frazzled, incredibly fluffy haired Greg James who was inexplicably holding out a very large jar of honey.

Louis hadn’t seen Greg outside of a few nods and quiet hellos in the break room since their department night out a couple weeks ago. Searching his memory to be sure he didn’t miss anything, Louis was still confused because he had no explanation for why he would be there now.

“Hello, Gregory,” Louis said slowly, hoping that it would get Greg to say something. 

Instead, Greg just ran his hand through his hair, making it fluff up even more. His hair was a bit of a mess on a good day, but it seemed to be longer than he usually kept it now and the more he ran his hand through it, the more it continued to grow. He was tall enough as it was, he really didn’t need to add height with his hair.

It was adorable, though.

Shifting around, Greg stepped forward and held the honey out towards Louis again. “This is for you.”

“Erm, alright,” Louis said before carefully taking the heavy jar from him. “Thank you?”

Greg flashed a wide grin, nodded, and then without another word walked back out the front door of the building.

Still standing in his doorway, Louis looked down at the jar of honey and inspected it, as if it would give him more information as to what exactly just happened. When it didn’t, he shrugged and closed the door. He could just ask Greg about it at work on Monday.

*~~***~~*

The problem was Monday came around, and Louis never found the chance to approach Greg. What was he supposed to say anyway?  _ Hey, you know how you showed up randomly with the honey? Why? _ Yeah, that was not what he wanted to break the ice with. Until he could find a better way to approach the subject, he’d just sit and focus on work like he always did.

By Thursday, Louis still hadn’t figured out what to say, so he figured it would just need to go on being ignored for the time being, which was fine. He and Harry had debated over what exactly to do with a jar of honey that was entirely too much for them to use themselves. In the end, they’d kept a small amount in their own smaller jar and Harry had taken the rest to his mum who loved to bake with it. Louis would feel entirely too guilty to ever admit that to Greg, so it worked in his favour really that they were both pretending that the strange event last Friday had never happened.

Louis had just pulled his headphones out to make a phone call to a client when someone knocked on the line of metal lining his cubicle. Louis spun around in his chair expecting to see Chris or Scott, but instead it was Greg.

Dropping his foot to stop his chair from spinning too far, Louis tried to formulate a greeting. Greg never had a reason to stop by and therefore never did. Louis hoped maybe this wasn’t work related, but he also didn’t want to  _ assume _ anything, which left him with very few options.

“Hey,” Louis spit out, wincing internally. No wonder Greg didn’t want to come and talk to Louis, he was obviously out of Louis’ league. 

“Hey, Louis,” Greg said, flashing his wide grin. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he started bouncing a little, which made Louis smile a bit. “I was just wondering how the honey was doing. Like, does it taste alright? Obviously the honey is doing just fine, it’s in a jar like it has been since it was harvested. Is honey harvested? That’s the correct term, right?”

“I… am not sure actually?” Louis said, feeling even more confused than he had been before. Did Greg really come over here just to talk about honey? “It tastes fine, though. Put some on my toast this morning. Tasted… sweet.”

Louis was a certified idiot. But then again, maybe Greg didn’t mind based on his own bumbling through this incredibly awkward conversation as well.

“Sweet is good. What would honey be if not sweet, hmm?” Greg chuckled and looked down at his feet. “Well. I’m glad. Don’t want to keep you away from work for too long. I’ll talk to you later, yeah?”

Louis nodded and could barely lift his hand for a wave before Greg was gone, his long stride taking him halfway across the large room after three steps.

Turning back around to face his computer, Louis found himself googling “honey harvesting” before he realised he really should call that client from earlier. Shaking his head in an attempt to free himself from thoughts of ways to describe the taste of honey, he picked up the phone promising himself he would do better if he ever had another chance to talk with Greg.

*~~***~~*

Louis did get another chance. He got several, actually. The problem was, their interactions never got better. Louis was starting to believe it was more an issue of the topic of conversation rather than the two of them having no ability to communicate clearly, but he wasn’t entirely sure. There was plenty of evidence that both he and Greg could and frequently did carry on regular, successful, social interactions with others that required talking. In fact, they both seemed fairly popular with their teams and clients since they both apparently knew exactly what to say to get people to agree with them.

But for whatever reason, Greg would not stop coming by Louis’ cubicle to talk to him about honey.

Greg and his fluffy hair came by at least once but usually twice a week and asked about the honey. Louis had gotten used to hedging and explaining that he and his flatmate didn’t actually use honey all that frequently, but the honey Greg had gifted was indeed flavourful and delicious honey. Thankfully, that was usually enough to get Greg spitting out some random fact that Louis really didn’t need to know.

Such as honey bees must collect nectar from at least one million flowers in order to produce one pound of honey. Or one bee has to fly the equivalent of three times around the globe in order to make one pound of honey. Or that the average honey bee will only make approximately one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. All facts that were interesting, to be sure, but Louis had no idea how to respond to them or what to do with this newfound knowledge.

It had been over a month since Greg had shown up on Louis’ doorstep now, and they had yet to have a free-flowing conversation about a topic outside of honey and bees. It made Louis want to bang his head against his desk in frustration.

“Why are you pouting over your chips? Did I get your order wrong?” Harry asked, leaning over the greasy paper Louis was holding on the couch to inspect them. “They look fine to me.”

“The chips are great,” Louis said, unable to hold back a chuckle. “I just have no idea what to do with Greg.”

“Ooh, did he come with another fact today?” Harry asked, sitting up and looking entirely too excited. 

Louis shook his head fondly. Harry had become quite interested in the information that Greg was sharing. He was also convinced that Greg was in love with Louis and didn’t know what to do about it. He claimed that was the only reason why Greg would continue to come by Louis’ cubicle and torture both of them, but Louis wasn’t sold on the idea.

“Yes. Did you know honey never spoils? It might crystalise, but it never actually spoils,” Louis shared.

“Ooh, I think I did know that one, actually. He’s really scraping the barrel if that’s what he told you today.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “I have to get him to stop doing this, Harry. How am I supposed to actually get him to have a conversation with me that doesn’t revolve around honey?”

Harry popped another chip into his mouth and tilted his head as he considered the question. “I think you need to jump into it before Greg does. You need to take the lead and guide the conversation somewhere else.”

“Like where?” Louis asked with a scoff.

“Like ask him on a date, for fuck’s sake.”

Louis paused, chip halfway to his mouth. “What, like just turn around and before he has a chance to say anything just go, ‘Hey, you free Friday? I was thinking we could go on a date and get some dinner?’”

“Yeah,” Harry said with a shrug. “Just maybe let him know ahead of time that the subject of honey was only allowed to be broached if you brought it up first.”

“That’s mean,” Louis said, shoving a chip in his mouth. “What if he just really likes honey?”

Harry leveled Louis with an unimpressed stare. “I really don’t think that’s all this is, Lou. Just ask him out, alright?”

Louis chuckled. “Sure thing, Haz.”

“I’m serious, you know,” Harry said, reaching his foot out and prodding at Louis’ thigh with his toes. “Just ask him. I’m sure he won’t say no.”

“I’ll think about it,” Louis promised before turning back to  _ Love Island. _

*~~***~~*

Harry’s suggestion wouldn’t stop plaguing Louis. He still wasn’t sure if he should ask him out or not. What if Harry was entirely misguided and Greg wasn’t interested in him at all?

Then again, if Louis asked and Greg said no, maybe he wouldn’t have to worry about their awkward honey factoid filled conversations either.

“Knock, knock,” a familiar voice said as he knocked on Louis’ cubicle, like he always did now.

Louis steeled himself as he turned around. Taking a deep breath, Louis tilted his head at the angle he knew set off his cheekbones. Looking through his lashes, he asked, “Greg, would you be interested in going on a date with me?”

Greg’s mouth opened and closed a few times, making Louis worry he really did misread everything. He never should have listened to Harry. Oh my God, what had he done?

And then, Greg turned around and walked away. He left not just Louis’ cubicle, but he walked entirely out the door to their floor.

That… was very bad. Definitely not what Harry had promised would happen.

Sighing, Louis picked up his mobile and thumbed to Harry’s contact.

_ Louis: You were wrong. You owe me cuddles and ice cream for the rest of your life in repayment. _

Harry sent back a line of question marks, but Louis refused to answer him. He was too sad to bother. At least there was only thirty minutes left before he could leave. That was the only good point of all of this. 

Sighing, Louis got back to work and tried to forget about the fact that the man he’d spent the past year or so pining over had most definitely just shut him down.

*~~***~~*

The last half hour of work had dragged on so badly, Louis had finally shut his computer down at five to and just messed with his phone until he could leave.

He said a half-hearted goodbye to the few people still on the floor and tried not to take his disappointment out on the door to the building as he walked out into the searing heat. Louis took a deep breath and closed his eyes, tilting his head back. If Manchester decided to give him a horrific day of heat and sunshine, the least Louis could do was use it to help cleanse him.

“Louis!”

Louis’ eyes popped open and he turned towards the voice.

Walking up to him was a sheepish looking Greg carrying a bouquet of flowers.

“Hey,” Louis said tentatively. He didn’t want to be one of those ridiculous people asking if the flowers were for him when they obviously weren’t. Right?

“I just wanted to apologise,” Greg started, and great. Here it was. Louis tried to steel himself for the fact that Greg had a girlfriend. A boyfriend. A long-term partner. Literally anything but room for a Louis in his life romantically speaking. “I’m a fucking idiot. I’m so sorry I just walked out without saying anything to you. Will you accept these flowers in apology?”

Blinking in confusion, Louis nodded and reached out for the flowers. Greg was smiling widely at him again, and Louis’ tummy was filling with butterflies and hope now. 

“I just have been looking for an excuse to talk to you and ask you on a date for over a year, and then you asked yourself and I was so floored that you might possibly be interested too that I couldn’t quite process it, so I walked away like a wanker.” 

Greg screwed his face up in apology and hunched his shoulders a bit like he was trying to make himself a bit smaller. Louis had noticed he did that when he was trying to come off as less intimidating, and it made him feel so fond. This man was truly wonderful in so many ways. 

And did he say he’d been trying to ask Louis on a date for a year as well? Had they really been dancing around each other for that long without any clue how the other felt? Maybe they were both idiots.

“Do you have any plans for tonight?” Greg asked quietly. “It’s alright if you do, or if what I did earlier was too much and you don’t want to have my ugly mug in front of you right now. Both are fair and valid. But after a year, if you’re interested too, I’d really,  _ really _ like to take you out.”

“I’m very interested,” Louis answered, almost before Greg had stopped speaking. “I don’t have any plans.”

“Oh thank fuck,” Greg said before flinging his entire lanky body to the floor right in front of their building. Louis apologised to the people walking past as Greg continued to make a scene thanking various deities.

“Get up already,” Louis said, laughing and holding out his hand. “You’ve got to take me to dinner, don’t you?”

Greg latched onto Louis’ hand and didn’t let go once he was standing again. 

“I sure do. Let’s go.”

*~~***~~*

Greg silently cursed Roisin. He liked her well enough, she was the kind of person who bought herself a robot Hoover for fun and named it Alan. The world needed more people like her, really, but she was tipsy and loud and therefore ruining all of his plans.

The entire reason Greg had accepted the invitation for the department dinner was because he knew Louis was going and he was hoping he could overhear something Louis was talking about that could finally be his in. Something he could use as a sort of mutual love to start up a good conversation with him.

He needed  _ something, _ because he’d been trying to work up the guts without that for almost a year now and obviously was getting nowhere.

Just then, Greg heard Louis laugh. He tried to nonchalantly lean in a bit more to hear him more clearly.

“How do you hate honey?” Louis asked Chris, his voice filled with a teasing edge. “I definitely like it well enough to have a baklava. What do you have against the nectar of the bees?”

Greg felt like a livewire had lit within him. That was it. He finally had something he could use to get Louis’ attention.

A plan began to form almost immediately. All he needed was a little time to research where he lived and go from there.

It was guaranteed to work. Greg was sure of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you again for reading! I hope you liked this silly little thing. If you did, please consider leaving a kudos and a nice comment! I'd also love you forever if you'd reblog my [fic post](https://lululawrence.tumblr.com/post/186003656898/a-taste-of-honey-by-lululawrence-greg-jameslouis).


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